The recent news about the luxury home reconstruction business in the Algarve, after its demolition, seems to confirm that the recent real estate boom in Portugal is expanding to new horizons.
The news from the civil construction sector points to a significant recovery, especially in the prime areas of the Algarve: Quinta do Lago, Vale do Lobo and Vilamoura.
According to the newspaper Público:
Since the last quarter of last year and the first quarter of 2016, 70 houses have been sold in Vale do Lobo - most of the acquisitions with the aim of breaking down and building again. In homes with 20 or 30 years of age, when you want to acquire new levels of comfort, advise the technicians, it does not pay for the restoration. It is easier (and sometimes cheaper) to build again.
When it comes to luxury homes, whose values are in the order of millions of euros, location is a key factor, so for this market segment, the option to take advantage of the land and its location and build it again becomes attractive. With the signature of architects whose aesthetic vision is a guarantee of modernity / charm, it is easier to attract customers for this sector.
Demolitions to build luxury resorts are also an option when new houses are in short supply. In the tourist resort Vilamoura, according to the administrator of the Enolagest group, Reinaldo Teixeira. “There is a lack of new product [housing] for sale”, according to this entrepreneur, linked to around 40 service companies in the region (including the real estate company Garvetur), “there are pipeline projects to move forward”, referring to the plans that the real estate fund Lone Star presented to Vilamoura. It is recalled that Lusort, the Spanish company that owned Vilamoura's real estate assets - the existing ones and the land yet to be built - and also the Vilamoura marina concession, was sold in 2015 to the North American Lone Star for around 200 millions of euros.